I just realized that I haven't talked about the curriculum we will be using this year.

For Alexandre: Toute ma deuxième année, Je lis! 2ème année, Par Écrit! 2ème année, Pas de problème! 2ème année, Math U See Beta, Mystery of History 1, Teach art for children (and mom), science also...  OUF!  Oh and I have some English phonic and English writing for him too!   Rosetta Stone French and Spanish.   Brainware

For Dominic:  Math U See Primer, Phonics Factory, 3 Steps Ahead, Toute ma maternelle, Brainware, Raconte-moi les sons (alphabet sounds in French). He will also learn to say his name, address, phone number and so on.

For Jérémy: Well he is following Dominic....  Repeating everything with him.  So I am assuming he will learn his alphabet and his numbers...   Teaching him to write his name, cut and fold.  And potty training - for whatever reason this kid is stubborn....

For Jasmine:  Nothing formal for her yet!   Teaching her to walk and using a sippy cup.

I might forget a few things.... but in a nutshell this is what we will use along with devotions every morning.

I've been pondering of friendship lately.   I realized that I am not a person who will have tons of friends.   I've always been like that since primary school I guess.   I learned fast that others can take advantage of you and somehow my heart had shut down on future friendship...   Oh don't take me wrong, I have one close friend when I was in high school but somehow we lost contact when we left for college.   Then we reconnected when she had her 15 years conventum (a year after mine) and lost contact again...  Then I found her on facebook but then I got sick in my stomach with facebook and I scraped most of the supposively friendship I had.   No really Facebook made me realize how fake some of those friendship were.    The kind of friendship that say hi only when it is convenient or only when you go to church...  Mind you sinice we are planting a church ourselves, we left the mother church without others thinking much about us I think.   Why am I saying this?   Well, nobody called or e-mailed to ask how things were going...   Except one or two that I would consider friends.    One of them left for Cochrane, AB to finish her master in divinity.  The other is homeschooling as well but her kids are older than mine.

Speaking of friends moving away - I got my share lately....   Last year, it was friends who moved to Winnipeg.  Since then, we made the effort to call once in a while but honestly I feel like it's a one side thing.    So I am wondering how close was that friendship???   Then, Rob sister, her husband and their two sons left for Vancouver earlier this year.    That too bad but hey a guy has to go where there is job to support his family.   So I understand.   It just sucks that we won't have physical contact with my nephews...   Oh well.  Then I though I had some sort of friendship with an older woman but again because we left our mother-church to plant another church, well that friendship sort of went on the ice...

Then my friend and her family moved to Cochrane.   Her daughter went to school with Alexandre and they are close.    We "joke" about the fact that they might marry someday.   Hey we never know...    Anyhow, these two are close and even call themselves boyfriend/girldfriend.    I want Alexandre to cultivate this friendship so we will write to his friend Emily during the next two years.

But friendship for myself???   Right now, I must say that it's pretty platonic.    I know that Jesus is my best friend and I do have internet friends but meeting with someone who lives in Pennsylvania or Cochrane, Alberta on a regular basis is kind of hard don't you think?    So I give it up to God - totally.   After all He knows what kind of friend is best for me.   I won't be looking.  He will have to make things happens. 

But just in case....  Here's some of my requirements:  Someone who would like to read, take walks, christian, interested in crafts (mostly stamping and scrapbooking), camping, homeschooling (possibly - or at least encourage me to continue), skating (okay it has been years since I did this but hubby doesn't enjoy it so I figure a girlfriend might like it), shopping, someone who would lift me up (not put me down), someone who will move heaven and earth to take my out because she knows I need a break from the kids, someone who will laugh with me and cry with me...   Mmmm!  My list could go on and on.   But I sure hope that I will find such a friend eventually. 

In the meantime, hubby wants to give me a break and suggested that I go to the trailer by myself for a day or two.  Problem is - I hate driving bymyself on long distance.    I hate going to eat somewhere by myself also.    So I guess I have to work on these aspects of me...    because I do need the time by myself -desperately!

My in-laws are flying to Vancouver to visit my sister-in-law and her family today.    So last night, as we were driving back home from church, Dominic was asking tons of questions...

- Where are they gonna sleep?

- At Tante Nicole and Oncle Jean.

- Do they have a bed for them?

- Yes.  They have a futon.

- What's a futon?

- It's like a sofa that can be made as a bed.

- Oh....  So it's a transformer sofa?

and the questions went on about pillows, blankets and even stuff animals.  But the one that made of laugh was the transformer sofa...  

After more than 6 years living in this house we never put together the baldaquin part of our bed.   

Last night, hubby left with a friend to go fish.   This morning, I decided that I would look the pieces to see if I could finish to put the bed together.    I knew I had all the posts and the other pieces but some posts had screws at both end and others didn't...  MmmmM!    I figure it out!    I put everything together but when the time to put the metal siding I was missing the screws for them.    Well... well... where could they be???

I checked the box where hubby leaves all the screws... not there.    Then I thought of a box in a hallway closet close to our room.   What is inside this box?   So I checked it out...  Found some stuff to sell in a garage sale and one or two things to keep.    Then a plastic bag which was written Master Bedroom.   In the bag there is screws and others few things.   Eureka!   Found the little screws... well one is missing somehow.   But I was able to finish the job.   Took me 2 hours by myself but I think it will be a nice surprise when hubby comes later today.

I'm proud of myself... but tired though.  It doesn't helpo when you have kids getting up at 530am.   Arg!

This morning we went to the chiropractor and on the way back home we stopped at Staples to a few things for school as well as for the business.   Then we went to Wal-Mart to buy some milk and a few other little things.   Then we decided to bring the kids to the McDonalds there.   A treat really because we don't go to McDonalds really often.   They had the new olympics glasses in hand and we decided to buy   the whole set.   I think they are very well made - strong.   We had the Disney glass set from a few years back with the four theme parks in Florida and love them.   Here's a picture of what they look like.  Not sure if the McDonalds in the States have the same glasses or not.   

Okay.   So I used smilebox to put pictures together to show all the things we have done during our road trip.   Mind you some pics are not the best but the grin on my kids face is jsut worth it....   Just to remind everyone of what we did is left Ontario to Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, Massachusetts to Maine, Maine to New Brunswick, New Brunswick to Prince Edouard Island, Prince Edouard Island to New Brunswick, New Brunswick to Quebec (slept one night), Quebec to back home in Ontario.

We had a great time!   I would do it again...   

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We are debating... should we go on a one week trip early September or not?   The weeks after that will become hectic with the rave and the grand opening with H.E.A.T. - but at the same time not too long ago we were on a month long trip.   Speaking of which...   I just realized I never put some pictures.   Mmmm!    Gotta do that.

The one week trip is tempting for sure.    One week in the States again - most likely in the Syracuse area.    We even got tempted to go back in PA - Yes Heidi and others from that state we might have gone back.   But honestly I'm a bit tired....  not sure I want to go that far...

So we are pondering, thinking hard, on what to do.   

I must honestly say that I have mixed feelings about The Schoolhouse Planner.  Why? You may ask…  First let me tell you that I can see the importance of having such a tool as a homeschool mom and how useful it can become.    The Schoolhouse Planner contains many sections to record all the possible activities that a homeschool family would do from arts and crafts to science and much more!

The Schoolhouse Planner is divided in three major parts.  The first part of the Planner is divided into 12 sections representing the 12 months of the school year from July 2008 to June 2009.    Each monthly section contains a must-know in homeschooling, an essay from an author in the homeschool community, some recipes and a resource list.  The must-knows are very fascinating and informative.  I really enjoyed reading the timeline of inventions, the famous composers and the history timeline.  I also personally read all the essays and thought that they were interesting.   Some were very informative while others were just a revision of things I already knew.   Getting new recipes was a bonus for me.   I can’t wait to try the Cheeseburger Rolls and the Easy Taco Soup!  Having a resource list is always interesting especially when you are looking for a product to cover something your children are studying.  

The next section that you will find in the Planner is the Homeschool Forms Instructions.    This section contains forms to help you organize your homeschool administration as well as keep track of the books read, crafts made, bible verses memorized, field trip done to name only a few.  In this section, I found many forms that I will use during the coming school year.   These forms will help me to record all the activities we do as well as the extra-curricular activities my children will take.    This section is a must have!  

The last section that is found in the Planner is the Household Forms Instructions.   I am wondering why this section is necessary.   On the other hand, I can see that others could potentially have trouble keeping track of the information regarding their family.   This section contains forms to help you better organize your home like information for a babysitter, health matters, schedules, menu planners, grocery list, inventories, chores, budget and so on.   You will also find a bible reading schedule, a prayer journal, a vacation planner and an address book.    Being part of a family who is computerized in every aspect possible, we do not need most of these forms.   However, I can understand how important this could be for a wife to know all the different aspects of a home especially the finances.    These forms will help anyone who wants to understand more about family affairs.    One thing I am wondering though is why there isn’t a form for the insurances – home, car, and health – or even something about wills?    I think that this is important information to have access to when needed and in case of emergency.   

Two options for printing are possible for homeschool families.   You can either print the whole document or you can pick and choose the pages that you would like to have.    Personally, I would go with the pick and choose option as there is a few things that I don’t need as a homeschool family living in Canada.    Also, this option gives you the opportunity to print multiple copies of a specific form when you have more than one child in your homeschool.

In conclusion, I find that some sections are very interesting but again I wish the Planner would be more flexible concerning the numbers of children involved in the homeschool and for the type of information that it contains.   I would especially love to have the option to indicate how many children I have so that I don’t have to figure out which documents I need to have in multiple copies.  I can see this Planner as being a first step toward the computerization of the information.    I wouldn’t mind seeing this information becoming a database or even a website where the user can modify and include information according to their needs.   For example, instead of getting the list of presidents of the USA in my copy I would opt for the list of prime ministers of Canada.    The Schoolhouse Planner is certainly an interesting e-book to consider managing your homeschool and house.   I would encourage all homeschoolers to take the time to see if this tool would be useful for them.

If you are interested to purchase a copy of The Schoolhouse Planner, please visit The Old Schoolhouse Store.

When I first heard of the digital version of The Old Schoolhouse magazine, I was wondering why a digital version… I must admit that I like having a paper copy in my hands to carry around. I was also wondering what the digital version would look like. To my surprise I now see the numerous advantages of it.

To begin with, I am really impressed with the look and feel of the digital version. I instantly loved the format and the presentation. It is very easy to use for experienced and not-so-experienced computer users. Being an advanced user I checked all the different options.

When I clicked on the contents button, I found all the different sections of the magazine. When I selected one specific one, it brought me automatically to the section selected. The pages option however allowed me to see the whole magazine as thumbnails and select whatever page I wish read. No need to shuffle through the magazine and check the pages to find what I want to read. This is a definite advantage.

I really liked the search button which permitted me to look for something specific in the fastest way possible. For example, if I am looking for an article that contains the word “draw” in it, I type the word in the search field and click submit. The search functionality would bring me all the articles containing the word I typed in the search field. It’s easy, fast and reliable.

The links button lists all the links that are found on the current page. I especially love the convenience that the links are included in the page because if I see an advertisement I really like I can easily click on it and I go directly to the vendor’s website. How often have I seen a link in a magazine that I never followed up on? With the digital version, it is as easy as a click of the mouse.

An interesting feature of the digital magazine is the settings button which allows me to modify the view of the magazine. I personally like the two pages presentation which allows me to read an entire article on the screen at once.

I am very enthusiastic about the digital version of this magazine because of its numerous functionalities. One of them excites me a lot because I now have the possibility to share a specific article with a friend without having to worry about the logistics of lending out my hard copy. Finally, I like the option of downloading the magazine and keeping it on my hard drive for future reference. Other great features are bookmarking a page, printing a page, getting help, viewing in full page and the RSS Feed (which contains a summary of the magazine).

The help that is provided is totally amazing! The help section is done with videos which demonstrate and guide a user through all the different options of the magazine. It is well done and the information provided is very clear. To learn how to use a specific feature of the digital magazine, you simply select the specific video and listen to it.

Other advantages of having the digital version of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine would be: • The fact that you receive it as soon as it is available. No need to wait on the postman to get your magazine, you get it directly in your e-mail.

• It is reasonably priced which will allow families who are on a tight budget to subscribe to this useful and wonderful homeschool magazine.
• It’s perfect for families who are environmentally conscious seeing as this edition is entirely electronic which eliminates the need for paper.
• Provides a format that is dynamic and easy to use, full of color and containing all the same information as the paper copy.
• And finally you even receive free gifts when you subscribe to the digital version!

In a nutshell, the digital version of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is worth considering. It contains all the same information as the paper copy and is easy to use. I would strongly recommend giving this version of the magazine a try. You might be surprise how much you will enjoy it. To be completely honest, I will even consider switching to the digital version of the magazine when my subscription ends. It’s easy, fun to use and I just love the fact that I have access to all the links at a click of my mouse. I can honestly say that I am totally sold for the digital version of The Old Schoolhouse magazine!

Okay!   I've experienced two years of toy testing and when I saw the e-mail of TOS for the focus group, I've decided to try it out.

My next step would be to write about two products.    I won't tell you right now what they are but I am quite excited about them...    So in the days to come I will check them out and blog about it as well.

So keep an eye open to read about my reviews.